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Quotes, Orders, and Invoices

Question
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Can you use Quotes, Orders, and Invoices completely independently of each other.
For instance, raise a new quote and close it as won but without creating an order.
Or, create and Order without needing to raise and Invoice?
Didn't want to just simply try as we only have the live instance, and no development server.Thursday, February 4, 2010 9:51 PM
Answers
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Yes, you can use the records independent of each other. If you want to be able to track a record all the way through the Sales cycle, then you would start with an Opportunity, create a Quote when you are ready to give it to the potential customer, create an Order when the customer buys and then create an Invoice when you invoice for payment or something similar. There are several variation available as they is no specific requirement for creating record types.
Best Regards | Twitter: edwardsdna- Proposed as answer by Donna EdwardsMVP Thursday, February 4, 2010 9:54 PM
- Marked as answer by Frank Lee CRM MVPModerator Thursday, February 4, 2010 10:02 PM
Thursday, February 4, 2010 9:54 PM -
Ok, I didn't understand that you were after some integration assistance from the orginal post.
Have you looked at Scribe software? It is relatively inexpensive and could do the job of creating a link in the Access db to the CRM record. If you don't want to purchase the integration tool, then you can have a look at the CRM SDK to see if you can find gain some insight. If you have already reviewed the SDK, then you may need to obtain the advise of a consultant who is familiar with Access in order to identify the best way to get the hyperlink (CRM Record URL into Access).
To construct the Quote URL, have a look at the construction of the URL in CRM by selecting Actions, Send Shortcut, look at the SDK or look at the construction in the Web browser Hyperlink address field. The construction, as you probably know, is something like this:
http://CRMURL/OrgName/sfa/quotes/edit.aspx?id={UniqueGuid}
The first part of the URL will always be the same. All you need to do is append the guid to the end of the string and update the Access database field.
Best Regards | Twitter: edwardsdna- Marked as answer by Martin3T Thursday, February 4, 2010 10:50 PM
Thursday, February 4, 2010 10:34 PM
All replies
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Yes, you can use the records independent of each other. If you want to be able to track a record all the way through the Sales cycle, then you would start with an Opportunity, create a Quote when you are ready to give it to the potential customer, create an Order when the customer buys and then create an Invoice when you invoice for payment or something similar. There are several variation available as they is no specific requirement for creating record types.
Best Regards | Twitter: edwardsdna- Proposed as answer by Donna EdwardsMVP Thursday, February 4, 2010 9:54 PM
- Marked as answer by Frank Lee CRM MVPModerator Thursday, February 4, 2010 10:02 PM
Thursday, February 4, 2010 9:54 PM -
Hi Donna,
thanks for the reply. I know the usual Sales cycle very wel, but unfortunately we use several different systems in or company and it's a very complicated affair to track Opportunities etc.
Currently, we use Opportunities as you would expect, but raise quotes in an external Access database (this is historical, and is also used to process Orders through to production jobs {we don't have products etc only services}), and every quote uses data imported from a CAD design package. AFter order, Invoices are raised in Sage!!!
Our, my life, would be made a whole lot easier if someone could point out how exactly you can link a CRM quote record to the equivalent quote record in the Access database, so for instance the quote number is associated with the QuoteID and the value is copied across into CRM.
I know how to query the CRM quote form to get it's individual ObjectID, but what I don't know is then how to write that out to a corresponding field in the Access quote table - because if I knew how to do that I could construct a hyperlink using the quote URL in CRM to re-open the CRM quote form from within the Access database.
Without the above we're basically stuck to doing it all manually, and probably duplicating steps and hence my original question.
Cheers
MartinThursday, February 4, 2010 10:09 PM -
Ok, I didn't understand that you were after some integration assistance from the orginal post.
Have you looked at Scribe software? It is relatively inexpensive and could do the job of creating a link in the Access db to the CRM record. If you don't want to purchase the integration tool, then you can have a look at the CRM SDK to see if you can find gain some insight. If you have already reviewed the SDK, then you may need to obtain the advise of a consultant who is familiar with Access in order to identify the best way to get the hyperlink (CRM Record URL into Access).
To construct the Quote URL, have a look at the construction of the URL in CRM by selecting Actions, Send Shortcut, look at the SDK or look at the construction in the Web browser Hyperlink address field. The construction, as you probably know, is something like this:
http://CRMURL/OrgName/sfa/quotes/edit.aspx?id={UniqueGuid}
The first part of the URL will always be the same. All you need to do is append the guid to the end of the string and update the Access database field.
Best Regards | Twitter: edwardsdna- Marked as answer by Martin3T Thursday, February 4, 2010 10:50 PM
Thursday, February 4, 2010 10:34 PM -
Hi Donna,
thanks for the advice.Thursday, February 4, 2010 10:51 PM -
You're welcome
Best Regards | Twitter: edwardsdnaFriday, February 5, 2010 1:09 AM